


who could do this?

by Jerevinan



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Childhood, Gen, Implied Child Abuse, Rescue, mentions of domestic violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-07-29 21:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16272830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jerevinan/pseuds/Jerevinan
Summary: She could never run away - never very far. But that night, she took his hand and never looked back.





	who could do this?

**Author's Note:**

> For the fictober 2018 prompt, 'who could do this?' 
> 
> Not sure how this came to me, but I'll say this: I like Jin. What he did for Lora that quickly upon awakening is nothing short of amazing.

Loud noises—even the screaming and the thumps of a body landing against a wall or floor—were common in that little hut. No one ever came to rescue Lora or Rynea, but the day Jin struck down Gort and took off his arm, the neighbors came knocking. 

Jin slipped her out a window while the villagers banged on the door. Even though she had only just awakened Jin’s core—an accident stemmed from childish curiosity—she trusted him. The way he clutched her hand and pressed a soft finger to her lips to keep her quiet as he guided her through the town displayed a tenderness she had only ever experienced at the hands of her mother. Once they had slipped into the nearby woods, he stopped to let her catch her breath behind a rock.

Lora couldn’t calm as she pressed her spine against the boulder, chest tight. The voices from the house only a few meters were crisp and clear in the night air. 

“What happened here?”

“Who could do this?”

“There’s so much blood!” 

Lora’s eyes watered and she choked on the sob she tried to swallow back down her throat. 

“We should go,” said Jin, his voice soft enough to let the wind carry it away. 

He held his hand out again. Without hesitation, she took it. While not too tight, his grip was firm and reassuring, and he never walked too fast that her legs couldn’t carry her. They had to stop often to hush their footsteps in the woods. Lanterns swung in the dark, casting shadows from the trunks of trees onto the leaf-littered forest floor. Jin deftly made his way through the dark. Fallen trees and rocky inclines were a great help in avoiding detection. They hid along a riverbed. Jin held her close to his body, arm around her shoulders. Never once did he try to cover her mouth. All he had to do was press a finger to his or her lips, and she would try her best to quiet. When she felt scared, she dived her head into his torso and let his clothes muffle the sound.

“We’ll look tomorrow,” said one villager to another, and their footsteps faded. 

Lora and Jin waited a few minutes, letting the sounds of the forest drown around them—the rush of river rapids nearby, the chirping of insects, and the rustle of wildlife in the foliage. Lora closed her eyes and steadied her breathing. In that moment, she recognized that her life had changed for good. Jin had protected her from whatever brutalities she would suffer for Gort’s state, but he would have killed her if the Blade hadn’t stepped in.

Jin stood, eyes narrowed as he peered around them. Once he assessed everything, he turned to Lora.

“Can you walk?” The same gentle voice she would later come to love.

Lora nodded. “Yes.” 

In the past, she had thought about running away on her own. Thoughts of her mother, alone with that man, always persuaded her back. Every footstep further away from home used to feel leaden until she found herself turned around. But that night, she had no choice but to go. Gort couldn’t say much without admitting to his own thievery; no doubt he had accused Lora of cutting off his arm but intentionally left out the Blade’s role in his ‘attack’. Those thoughts kept her pushing on through the night until her own muscles—and her young age—failed her. 

She stumbled forward, but the Blade hurriedly caught her in the crook of his arm. Wordlessly, Jin lifted her and carried her further away from a life that had only offered her misery. 

What they would do and where they would go were a mystery, but she looked forward to the story of her life unfolding. She drifted off in his arms, knowing her survival depended upon continuing forward with faith that things could only get better for her from then on.


End file.
